wallydraigle
Definitions
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- noun (noun) The youngest of a family; a bird in the nest; hence, any feeble, ill-grown creature.
Examples
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‘Deed, Miss Girzie, I feel for you. It's just like the cuckoo dabbing a wallydraigle out o’ the nest; but I’ll reason wi’ her.
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Here is a new volume of verse on everything from a new look in bankers to a sad case of Mr. Nagel, who was what the Scots call a wallydraigle.
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The 'English Dialect Dictionary' enshrines for the use of one per cent. of its students thirteen hundred synonyms of the word fool, and there are more than a thousand with which to upbraid a slattern. The former may be anything from a goffeny goavey to a nornigig, the latter is unquestionably a slommocks and a wally-draigle.
Sydney Smith, 'Current Literature,' The Edinburgh Critical Journal, Volume 219
Note
'Wallydraigle' is Scottish in origin, and comes from 'wally,' a term of endearment, plus 'dragle,' to drag or draw along on damp ground or mud, or on wet grass.
